Abstract/Description

We explore the relationship between farming
practice changes made by households coping with the huge
demographic, economic, and ecological changes they have
seen in the last 10 years and household food security. We
examine whether households that have been introducing
new practices, such as improved management of crops, soil,
land, water, and livestock (e.g. cover crops, microcatchments,
ridges, rotations, improved pastures, and trees) and new technologies (e.g. improved seeds, shorter-cycle
and drought-tolerant varieties) are more likely to be food
secure than less innovative farming households. Using data
from a baseline household survey carried out in five sites
and 700 households in four countries of East Africa (Kenya,
Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia) across a range of agricultural
systems and environments, this study contributes to the
evidence base of what smallholders are doing to adapt to
changing circumstances, including a changing climate. Lessons
from both similarities and differences across sites are
drawn. This unique baseline study provides a wide range of
indicators of activities and behaviors that will be monitored
over time. We found that many households are already
adapting to changing circumstances, and their changes tend
to be marginal rather than transformational in nature, with
relatively little uptake of existing improved soil, water and
land management practices. There is a strong negative relationship
between the number of food deficit months and
innovation, i.e. the least food secure households are making
few farming practice changes. This has very different policy
and investment implications depending on assumptions
made as to the direction of causality.